The Missing Marauder's Map
by aldursdisciple12
Summary: Pretty much what the title says; the Marauder's Map is missing. Rating is for some swearing, and because I'm paranoid.
1. Chapter 1

The Missing Marauders Map

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Harry Potter series (But I wish I did)

Summary: The Marauders have lost their Map.

"About bloody time," Sirius Black grumbled. He was sitting in the common room with his friends Remus Lupin and James Potter.

"There were a lot of parchments on that table," Peter Pettigrew retorted. "It took a while to find it."

"But you did get it, right, Wormtail?" Remus asked nervously.

"Yep, I did." Peter retorted, handing a piece of parchment to James.

"Prongs," Sirius said lazily,"would you care to do the honours?"

"I think we all should," James grinned.

The four fifth years began to pull out their wands when Remus hissed at them to put them away. The others glanced up. The common room was empty of everyone but them, except for another fifth year coming down the stairs from their dormitory.

"Hey guys," Frank Longbottom said. "What are you doing up so early?"

James looked at the others.

"We were just talking," he told Frank. "We didn't want to wake you up, so we came down here instead. Trust me; we'd still be in the dorm right now otherwise. I mean, it's Saturday! Anyway, what are you doing up?"

"Just going to the library to study for my O.W.L.s. I need to do well on the Divination final if I want to pass."

"Just make it up, mate." Sirius grinned. "No one will ever know the difference. Just make sure you don't start telling the examiner that they're going to kick the bucket, and don't put them in an unflattering light. They'll never know."

"Yeah, well, my Mum would figure it out." Frank told him. The others winced. Augusta Longbottom had a temper that could rival McGonagall's. "See you guys around," Frank said, and left the common room, a sheaf of parchments tucked under his arm. After he left, the boys all looked at each other.

"Let's go up to our dorm. Frank's gone, so we can lock the door and keep any unwanted visitors out," Peter suggested.

"Sounds good to me," Remus told him. The four of them went up the stairs. Once in their room they closed and locked the door. They turned to one another.

"Well, lets get on with it. Everyone remember the phrase?" Sirius asked the other three. They nodded, and the group put their wand tips on the parchment that was James had spread out on his bed.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," they said in unison, and looked at the parchment expectantly. Nothing happened.

"What the hell! Why isn't it working? Padfoot, you said this thing was finished properly!" James yelled.

"It is! Moony and I tested it out on a map of the tower, and it worked fine! And we did everything the same, so it should be working!"

"He's right," Remus confirmed, "and we did do it the exact same, at the same time."

"Wormtail, are you sure that you grabbed the right parchment?" James asked.

"I think so, but..."

"But what?" Sirius asked suspiciously.

"There _were alot_ of parchments on that table. I could have grabbed the wrong one by mistake, since I haven't seen too much of the real thing."

"Anyone could have made the same mistake, Wormtail," Remus told him, already turning toward the table. "We'll just get the real deal, and... BLOODY HELL!"

"Moony, what is it?" James was concerned. Remus never cursed, unless it was something really big. The guy had even cut his hand open with a knife in Potions, and the worst thing he said had been 'crap'.

"THE TABLE'S BLANK!"

"Oh, shit."

"Wormtail, I thought you said that there were a ton of parchments here," Sirius said, worried.

"There were, they were right there, not even ten minutes ago!"

"Yeah," James said slowly, "there were. Before Frank came down." He let that sink in before continuing. "He had a bunch of parchments under his arm. Guys, Frank took the Map!"

"Shit!" Sirius swore. "If he writes on it, all the spells will be cancelled, and we'll have to start all over again, from the very beginning!"

"And that would take a while to do, you guys spent six months getting all the spell together, mixing the inks, and Wormtail and I would have to redraw the Map from memory." James' voice trailed off.

"My fingers only just got back to normal two weeks ago, after all that drawing. Why did we have to burn the rough drafts again, Moony?" Peter asked.

"Because if anyone got a hold of them, they would have gone to McGonagall, and then we would be in detention until our grandkids were here at Hogwarts." Remus looked at the others. "We have got to get that Map back"

So, what do you think? Am I wasting my time with this, or is it actually good. I hope I can get the next chapter up soon :)


	2. Chapter 2

_The Missing Marauder's Map_ Chapter Two

The four Marauders ran down the stairs , past the new librarian, Madam Pince, and came to a stop.

"Okay," James panted, "lets split up. Moony, go with Wormtail, start at the left and work your way in. Padfoot and I will go from the right. Use whatever excuse you can think of, but get the parchments. We'll figure out which one it is later. And above all: Don't let Frank know why we want the parchments."

They went their separate ways and searched the library. It was a large library, and it took over an hour to look. They met up rather close to where James and Sirius had started, because Lily Evans was sitting with a group of her friends, and James and Sirius just had to watch them from behind a bookcase. Remus smacked the two of them when he found them.

"Please tell me you found him," James said, rubbing the side of his head. Who knew Remus had such an arm? Why didn't he ever try-out to be a Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, James would never know.

"No, he wasn't," Remus said, despairingly. "And Wormtail ditched me half-way through our search, and we met up again just before we met you two Peeping Toms."

" I went to go see Madam Pince. She said that she kicked Frank out about five minutes before we got here. He was snogging Alice, and they didn't find a good place to hide from her-"

"Studying for O.W.L's, my ass," Sirius snorted.

"Only if they've started offering an introduction to broom closets course," James snickered.

"-so I went looking for Alice, and she said that Frank was going to the lake, to practice some Transfiguration. THAT, Moony, is why I left you," Peter finished.

There was silence for almost a full minute as the other three stood there with their mouths gaping open, letting the full meaning of what he had said sink in.

"Uh, guys? Say something, please," Peter begged.

"Wormtail, that was bloody brilliant!" Sirius yelled, overcoming his shock. "Come on, you lot, lets go. To the lake!"

The four raced down to the lake, knocking down Mr. Filch and careening off Hagrid before making it out the doors, Filch's angry yells echoing behind them. After a sprint down the lawn that would have made any Olympic athelete proud, they arrived, breathless, at the lake's edge.

There was no one there, except a fifth year Slytherin, by the name of Severus Snape. Even with their mouths open, gulping down air as thought they hadn't been breathing for five minutes ( which, thinking about it, they not have been), James and Siroius traded identical, evil grins. Snape looked up.

"Oh, shit," he muttered. Louder, so the four Gryffindors could hear him, he added," What do you lot want?" This reminded Sirius about his reason for being there. James was still thinking about the joys of not having any teacher around to see him pranking Snape, and the disappointment that there were no stdents around to see him pranking Snape.

"Normally, Prongs, I would never consider this, but…" Sirius didn't finish his sentence, and James finally remember why he was down at the lake instead of sitting in the tower.

" I know, Padfoot, I know," he sighed.

"Snape," Remus said, ignoring the other two, who were now griping about how the world was so unfair, to give them perfect Snivellus pranking time, but no way to enjoy it. " We were wondering if you had seen Frank Longbottom recently. And before you ask," he continued, cutting Snape off as he opened his mouth, "yes, I will keep Black and Potter firmly leashed for two weeks. Do we have a deal?"

Snape regarded him with his black eyes.

" One month, and you have a deal."

"Fine."

"Longbottom was here, but Hagrid told him that his owl was doing poorly, so he went up to the Owlery. This was about half an hour ago. He should still be there."

"Thank you, Snape. I'll keep my side of this bargain. Come on, you two," he added to Sirius and James, both of whom were looking very pale. "Lets get up to the Owlery."

On the way back to the castle, James regained the power of speech and began yelling at his friend.

"What the hell did you do that for?! You promised Snivellus that we wouldn't prank him for a whole month! How are we supposed to do that?"

Sirius was equally livid.

"How could you do that to us, Moony? Do you have any idea how hard that is going to that?"

Remus grabbed the backs of their robes, and pulled them around to face him.

"Look, we need to get the Map back. Which means we need to know where Frank. Therefore we needed to get on Snape's good side. So which would you rather do, leave Snape alone for a month and focus on Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff with the aid of the Map, or spend all of your time making another Map, in which case you wouldn't be able to prank Snape anyway? Besides, if you leave him alone, then Evans _may_ give James a chance. Plus, " Remus grinned, " this is payback for making me and Wormtail search the whole library while you stared at Evans."

James flushed a deep red, and started muttering to himself. Sirius sighed.

"Well, "he drawled, "when you put it that way…"

"That's what I thought," Remus smiled. "Come on. To the Owlery!"

So, if you still like it, let me know by pressing the lovely review button right below this sentence!


	3. Chapter 3

The Final Chapter.

Okay, it's done now, so enjoy! Oh, and just as a recap, I don't own anything to do with Harry Potter. But I will admit, it would be fun to!!

As the Marauders ran inside the castle, they knocked over five buckets of soapy water that Mr. Filch, the caretaker, was using to clean the Entrance Hall. With his yells following them, they raced up the stairs –

And ran smack-bang into Professor McGonagall, the Transfigurations teacher, and Head of Gryffindor House.

"What are you four up to?" she asked icily.

"Trying to catch up to Frank," Peter told her.

"Unfortunately, Mr. Lupin, that is not an acceptable excuse for running over Mr. Filch, Hagrid, and myself. Fifty points will be taken from Gryffindor, and you will each be serving a detention with Mr. Filch at a later date. I'm sure he can come up with something appropriate."

"Okay, Professor, we get it, we won't do it again, can we go find Frank now?" James asked anxiously. Without waiting for a reply, the Marauders took off again towards the Owlery.

Halfway up to the tower, they encountered Frank Longbottom.

"Frank!" Sirius yelled, coming to a panting halt just short of running into the other fifth year. "Frank, we need something."

"What do you need?" Frank asked warily. Sometimes what the Marauders needed was a scapegoat for a prank, materials for a prank, or an alibi for a prank. Since it was rarely something that didn't have to do with a prank, most students just turned and ran when one of the four asked for something. Frank, however, didn't have that luxury, since he shared a dorm room with the Marauders, and therefore couldn't avoid them forever.

"We need a piece of parchment. One of yours, specifically."

"WHAT!!"

"We need one of your parchments. Well, it's actually one of ours. We left it on your bedside table by accident, and now we need it back." Peter was rather calm about all of this.

"All I have is blank parchments, so what's so important about this one?" Frank was rather suspicious about all of this. He had been on the wrong end of one of these favors before, and had no desire to be in that position again.

"James wrote a love letter for Evans on one of the parchments in invisible ink, but the ink he used was experimental, so it could reveal itself at anytime, so we need it back. It just wouldn't be funny if he made a fool of himself before Evans could laugh at him." Peter had a gift for lying that the other Marauders had never seen on anyone else. He could tell someone that the sky was a bright purple with pink polka-dots and yellow stripes and they would believe him, but even he could only barely keep a straight face as he spun this particular web of lies. The look on James' face wasn't helping either.

"We've tried telling him to just talk to the girl, but…" Remus shook his head, trying very hard not to laugh. Sirius had already gone past the point of no return, and was laughing his head off.

"So," James said through clenched teeth as he restrained himself from killing his three best friends, "can you give us the parchment or not?"

"Sure," Frank grinned, "I haven't used any of them, so I'll just leave the lot with you. You can give the others back after lunch." He handed the parchments over to James, and sauntered off to the Great Hall, chuckling as he did so. Peter looked longingly after him.

"We're not going down to lunch, are we." He sighed.

"Nope," James told him. "We need to go upstairs and figure out which one is the Map. Plus, you all need to have a detention for betraying me like that."

They began the climb to their dormitory, and locked the door behind them. Sirius finally got his laughter under control and, wiping the tears from his eyes, took out his wand to perform the spells that would tell them which parchment was the Map. James spread the parchments out on the floor.

"Well," Sirius said, not looking at the others, for fear of laughing some more "wish me luck." With a deep breath, to calm himself, he cast his wand over the parchments. When he was done, he frowned.

"Maybe you should turn them over and check, Padfoot," Remus told him, noticing that none of the parchments had the Map on them. Then he got a funny look in his eyes.

"What is it, Moony?" James asked. Sirius looked at Remus in confusion, while Peter had a look of understanding dawn in his eyes. Remus walked over to the bed where the first parchment was spread out, and flipped it onto the other side. The others walked over, and peered over his shoulders and read: '_Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs are proud …'_ they refused to look any further.

"All this time," Sirius whispered. "It was here all this time. Do you know what this means?"

"That we are a bunch of bloody idiots?" Remus asked, still in a state of shock.

"No," James answered. "It means that we got detention, lost fifty House points, ran all over the castle, and have to stop pranking Snape for nothing!" His voice was getting louder and louder, until he was shouting the last bit.

"_AND_ we missed breakfast and lunch," Peter groused.

"You know what we got to do now?" Remus asked the others.

"Hang ourselves," was Sirius' answer. Peter figured they should go to the kitchen for food, and James' response cannot be repeated, but it involved some Nifflers and Snape's broom.

"No, and James, that is highly inappropriate," Remus informed him. "We have to find a spell that lets us use the Map, no matter what side of parchment we are looking at."

"OOOOOHHH!!"

So, it's done now. Hope it was good!!


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